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Tika Prasad Dhakal is an expert on international relations, transitional justice and geopolitics, who served as an advisor to former President Bidya Devi Bhandari. These days he is busy participating in public discourse on Nepal’s long drawn-out transitional justice process. Kamal Dev Bhattarai of ApEx speaks to him on various issues surrounding the bill to amend the transitional justice law, which is currently in Parliament.. The transitional justice bill has drawn widespread criticisms. What is your take on this? Regrettably, I must say that there has been scant advancement in satisfying the fundamental legal standards in the amendment bill. It has many faults both in its process and content. The government should have transparently assessed more than a dozen Supreme Court (SC) verdicts and documents of the past fifteen years, and sought input from the affected parties, particularly the victim community. But the ruling coalition rushed a deeply flawed bill in Parliament, which came in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to accept a case against Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal for conflict-era human rights violations. So this reactive bill neglects several crucial judgements and benchmarks established by the court. It is now upon our Parliament to address the shortcomings in the bill. What are the main sticking points of the bill? There are two perspectives to consider when evaluating this bill. While many of us tend to focus solely on its content and compare it to the ‘Enforced Disappearances Inquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, 2014’ (TRC Act), a more accurate approach would be to examine it in light of the Supreme Court’s  judgment, from where the very obligation of this amendment origins. However, regardless of the approach, the bill contains several flaws outlined into five areas. The first is related to the security and privacy of cases. The bill fails to include provisions that ensure witness protection, nor does it guarantee the safety of plaintiffs. Without security, witnesses and victims could be intimidated and silenced during the truth-finding process. The second area of concern is gender sensitivity. Any inquiry or investigation into serious human rights violations must take into account the needs of victims of rape and sexual violence. These crimes cannot be forgiven, and it is also important to protect the privacy of the victims. But in a clear violation of the Supreme Court’s rulings, the amendment bill fails to address these issues. The third issue is about the definition of crimes. The bill attempts to classify conflict-era criminalities under two categories: human rights violation and serious violation of human rights. The nine types of crimes listed in the first group are made amnestiable, including murder, torture, sexual violence, and hostage-taking. Crimes in the second group are unamnestiable. The group include four types of crimes: merciless killing of an individual after cruel and inhuman torture, rape, enforced disappearance, and inhuman and cruel torture. This is unacceptable, as it essentially makes some murders pardonable and says only select types of murders may be prosecuted. This amendment proposal sends the message that many of the murders during the Maoist conflict were justifiable. Furthermore, the section of the definition of enforced disappearance has been removed from the TRC Act, making any investigation impossible. The fourth issue is related to the formation of the transitional justice commissions. Lessons learned from the failure of the past commissions should be taken into account. A more transparent and vettable appointment process should be adopted. And finally, the law must not discriminate against the victims, including former child soldiers and the families of affected security personnel. The Maoist party is fearful of any mention of 'child soldiers' used in its rebel armed units. For this, the law may use less contentious terminology as used in United Nations Mission in Nepal’s verification documents, such as 'combatants who were late recruits and minors.' A more holistic view of the law should address the four pillars of transitional justice: truth, justice, reparations, and guarantee of non-recurrence. Could you please elaborate on the international dimensions of Nepal’s transitional justice process? Article 7 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement mandates that the Maoist party fully adhere to the ‘basic principles and values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, and Human Rights Law.’ Hence, any transitional justice law created today will be evaluated against this provision of the peace agreement. The Article 7 validates the voice of the international community on our transitional justice process. In the recent times, our weaknesses hitherto have been picked up by the geopolitical actors to influence our domestic politics from making or breaking the coalition to the formation of the governments. As someone who has worked in this field for several years and someone who comes from a family of martyrs, I believe that gaining the trust of the democratic world, particularly India, is crucial for our transitional justice efforts. After all, the legitimacy of the Nepali Peace Process in 2005-2006 was achieved through India's support and facilitation. Global recognition of a successful transitional justice process, which is also the final stage of the peace process, depends quite largely on the backing of the democratic world. However, we must remain vigilant against any attempts, domestic or external, of geopolitically weaponizing this process. How do you see the commitment of major political parties? The Maoist party, which has once again taken the reins of government after the peace process for the third time, has consistently disregarded transitional justice, primarily out of fear of potential prosecution of its leaders. The Nepali Congress is no different. The party is shamelessly putting their political interests ahead of justice. And let's not forget the CPN-UML, who tried to push the process forward by reforming the commissions in 2020, which failed miserably. It is high time the major political parties reeducated themselves on transitional justice and rose above the interests of individual leaders. So what is the way forward for our transitional justice process? Moving forward, the amendment bill must be referred to the ‘Committee on Law, Justice, and Human Rights’ of Parliament. This will create space for a broad reevaluation and consultation with the victim community and other stakeholders. The law must be informed by a comprehensive assessment of the peace process. In upgrading the content of the bill, all past judgments of the Supreme Court must be evaluated. By doing so, the House committee will be in a position to correct both the process and the content of the bill. Drafting a competent law will require at least three to four months of honest work. We should be able to afford a few months to repair a process that has been delayed for 16 years. To successfully conclude any transitional justice process in the world, a law must be drafted that provides an unquestionable framework for the commissions to balance judicial aspects through collective measures of reparations, truth-seeking, and institutional reforms. However, our government is attempting the opposite: drafting a seriously compromised law and forcing it through the majority. This approach is a recipe for disaster. Politically, an agreement based on democratic ethics among the three major political parties—CPN UML, NC, and Maoists—is crucial for the successful conclusion of this process. One could argue that the ruling coalition has a majority and may pass the flawed law. The principal opposition UML's role becomes critical in this scenario. As a signatory of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, an isolated CPN-UML may declare in the House that it would reopen all conflict-era cases as soon as it comes to power. At this point, the entire transitional justice process would suffer a huge setback, leading to a deeper crisis of confidence. We should be prepared for a situation like in Argentina, where the transitional justice process had to be restarted with a prosecutorial approach from scratch within five years of introducing the Full Stop Law in 1998. UML’s position should, therefore, deter the ruling coalition from moving unilaterally. Nepal's transitional justice process will move towards resolution as soon as these three major political parties express a collective commitment in the parliament.

President Ram Chandra Paudel administered the oath of office and secrecy to newly appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Prakash (NP) Saud amidst a special ceremony at the Office of the President in Sheetal Niwas today. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had appointed Saud, a Nepali Congress leader and member of the House of Representatives, today. Vice-President Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav, Prime Minister Dahal, Speaker Devraj Ghimire and National Assembly Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina were present in the program. Minister Saud also today took charge of his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singha Durbar. The Nepali Congress central committee member Saud has already served as the Minister for Irrigation in 2070 BS and as the Minister of State for Education and Sports in 2057 BS. He was elected to the House of Representatives from Kanchanpur-2 in 2056 BS and 2070 BS. He was also elected to the House of Representatives from the same constituency in the election held on November 20, 2022. Saud joined the Nepal Students Union (NSU), the student wing of the Nepali Congress, in 2036 BS and forayed into politics. He was elected the vice-president of NSU in 2043 BS and went on to become the central president in 2048 BS. He was born to father Khadga Singh Saud and mother Kushilya Devi on August 9, 1962 in Dadeldhura. His permanent address is Shuklaphanta Municipality-6, Kanchanpur district in Sudurpaschim province. He has visited India, the United States of America, Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Germany, the Philippines, South Korea, Egypt, Japan, Singapore, Qatar, Thailand, among other countries.  

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 2.80 points to close at 1,931.68 points on Sunday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 0. 26 points to close at 367.73 points. A total of 3,056,775-unit shares of 265 companies were traded for Rs 974 billion. Meanwhile, Adarsha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited and Molung Hydropower Company Limited are the top gainers today with their price surging by 9.99 percent. Likewise, Asian Hydropower Limited is the top loser with its price dropped by 7. 83 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 81 trillion.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 800 per tola in the domestic market Sunday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 110, 000 per tola today. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 110, 800 per tola on Thursday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 109, 500 per tola. It was traded at Rs 110, 250. The silver is being traded at Rs 1, 450.

2079 BS was a roller coaster year for the Nepali economy. Nepal grappled with an external sector crisis starting at the beginning of the year and the country is again facing another crisis in the form of a huge fiscal deficit as the year ends. The country's economy is passing through a difficult phase with the government struggling in revenue collection and resource management, growing discontent of businesspersons against banks and financial institutions, and rising bad loans in the financial sector. While the recovery of the country's external sector has provided some breathing space, declining imports and the slowdown in economic activities, falling demands, and economic activities have emerged as new concerns. The year also saw the deterioration in the relationship between Finance Minister and Nepal Rastra Bank Governor, the federal budget tampering episode, and the government issuing licenses to a certain sector in collusion with the private sector. The private sector's displeasure over high borrowing rates is yet to subside and the financial sector is facing a possible storm in the form of rising bad loans and difficulties in the recovery of debts. Over the past year, the non-performing loans (NPL) of BFIs have doubled. The recent data published by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) shows that NPLs of commercial banks stood at 2.49 percent compared to 1.18 percent in the last fiscal year. The lending of BFIs has remained dismal as industrialists and businesspersons held back their new investment plans. The country's economic growth in the first quarter has been limited to 0.8 percent. Over the past year, interest rates have been a subject of much debate and controversy with the business community blaming high borrowing as one of the main reasons for the current economic slowdown in the country. The high-interest rates, declining market demand, and slowdown in the stock market, realty sector, and construction sector have weakened the private sector's confidence. According to Rajendra Malla, President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce, 2079 was a very difficult year for business community members. "In my 36 years in the business sector, I have not seen economic problems like in the past year," he said. Government treasury in deficit The import restrictions to avert the external sector crisis has hit the government hard. With revenue collection on a continuous decline, the mismatch between government expenditure and income has widened further. Data show the government treasury is in deficit by over Rs 200bn by mid-April 2023. According to the latest statistics of the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), the government's expenditure reached Rs 895.13bn by mid-April while the income totaled Rs 667.82bn. The government has been able to meet only 47.59 percent of the revenue target during the nine months of the current fiscal year while the total expenditure has reached 49.9 percent of the annual target. Amid rising recurrent expenditure, the government has failed to expedite capital expenditure. Rising inflation Throughout the year, the Nepali economy had to deal with high consumer prices. While the government had set a goal of keeping inflation below 7 percent this year, the rate rose to more than 8 percent. While official data show the inflation rate did not reach double digits, surveys conducted by private sector organizations and independent studies have reported that prices of many products and services went by as high as 25 percent. While the inflation in Falgun (mid-March) came down to 7.44 percent, it is still higher than that of the last year. The average inflation last year was 6.32 percent. The Russia-Ukraine conflict, disruption in the supply chain, and subsequent price rise in the commodities hit the economy hard. Liquidity crunch and high-interest rates Last year, the banking system went through a liquidity crunch, which was seen as the most severe in living memory, pushing the interest rates to double digits. With the acute shortage of investment-grade liquidity in the financial system, interest rates on both deposits and lending kept on rising. The average interest rate of commercial banks till mid-February was above 13 percent. In fact, interest rate in 2079 BS was the highest in the last one decade. Amid higher interest rates, banks struggled in lending in the last year. The demand for loans declined sharply as economic activities slowed dramatically. The extension of loans of banks and financial institutions stood at Rs 128.18bn compared to Rs 522.49bn in 2078 BS. As the cost of loans increased, there was a strong protest against the banks and financial institutions across the country. However, starting from Magh, banks gradually reduced interest rates on deposits with easing of the liquidity in the financial system. The high interest rate has increased the cost of funds for banks which resulted in a decline in their profits. Realty and construction sector in recession With BFIs tightening the realty lending, the real estate sector saw business coming to a new low. Realty entrepreneurs said there has been a decline of about 60 percent in real estate transactions in the first nine of the current fiscal year. The government restriction on land plotting due to the delay over the classification of lands also hit the realty sector hard. As the realty sector was in disarray, the construction sector along with the cement, steel and other construction material business slumped massively. The slowdown in new housing construction as well as sluggish capital expenditure of the government hit the production capacity of the country's steel and cement industries. According to National Statistics Office, the construction sector's growth has remained negative by 24 percent and the mining sector by 29 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Stock market on a downward spiral 2079 was a year of losses for the stock market investors. The investors lost more than Rs 612bn last year. With the central bank not keen to ease the provision on margin lending, the stock market went on a bearish run throughout the year. While there is strong pressure on the government to ease the margin lending policy, the central bank is still reluctant to ease the flow of money to the stock market. And, some silver linings Amid the difficulties, silver linings have also been seen in the dark clouds of uncertainty. The improvement in the country's external sector has continued in the eight months of the current fiscal year. The report by the central bank shows noticeable improvements in the country's forex reserves, the balance of payment (BOP), tourism income, and remittance inflow. The electricity export to India has given new optimism. Nepal exported electricity worth Rs 11.16bn to its southern neighbor in the last one year. With Nepal and India agreeing to more energy cooperation, the door for more power export has been opened.

Garbage management is one among many sectors of national life that is directly linked with the right to health, one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. Without an iota of doubt, it is the duty of the state to safeguard this and other fundamental rights. Without a doubt, this right is for both the people living at the sources of waste as well as those living close to waste disposal sites. But this right, like other fundamental rights, has remained largely on paper. Waste collection and disposal coming to a halt has ceased to be news despite its serious impact on public health, especially at a time when the threat of coronavirus and other health risks are lurking. Imagine, for example, the situation in the Kathmandu Valley, which is home to millions of people and produces 1, 200 tons of waste daily—15-20 percent of it is recyclable—when waste collection and disposal comes to a halt. Avoiding such a situation requires increased coordination and cooperation between different tiers of the government, including the federal government, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the local government, communities living close to the disposal sites, political parties as well as security apparatuses. Without a seamless coordination and cooperation, waste management is bound to come to a halt, much to the detriment of a large population. Forget seamlessness in this crucial task, even working coordination and cooperation between the federal government and the KMC seems to be a far cry as a recent, much-publicized spat between Mayor Balen Shah and Singhadurbar shows. Citing indifference on the part of Singhadurbar toward concerns regarding waste management, Mayor Shah has made it loud and clear that KMC will not collect garbage from nerve centers of the state, namely Singhadurbar and the Presidential Palace, unless the center addresses KMC’s concerns. Singha Durbar, on its part, has deemed Shah’s move as irresponsible and reminded him of KMC’s responsibility. This episode has once again shown that garbage management is a multi-lane way requiring all sides to work together for an obstruction-free traffic movement. Apart from concerns of people at the source, people living around disposal sites also have their concerns related to public health and the environment. Addressing conflicting concerns may not be easy, but there’s no shortcut to this problem. More often than not, political parties have faced charges of politicizing issues surrounding garbage management for petty gains. The onus is on them to mend ways and raise genuine concerns of the public. Waste management in urban centers like the valley will require short-term, medium-term and long-term plans. The policy of reducing, reusing and recycling non-degradable waste may help mitigate the problem apart from the promotion of greener alternatives. For now, the onus is on the feuding parties to sit together and prevent the conflict from aggravating further, in the larger interest of the public.

Takatoshi Nakamura, an engineer by profession, has been in the internet services business for over two decades. He currently is the CEO of Cipher-Core, Inc., a Japan-based company that provides information security services, end-to-end protection technology for communication systems and remote authentication technology for internet-of-things (IoT) systems, among others, to its clients across the globe. ApEx talked to Nakamura about the scope of internet business, new technology, security and how Nepal can benefit from it. Excerpts: What is information security? Information security is basically a process to secure information from various kinds of cyber threats such as information theft, fake information, pretending to be someone else, etc. Many technologies and online systems can be manipulated by hackers and engineers try to protect them considering all the loopholes. We have built a system that is secured at the topmost level. Our information security diagnosis software can secure both hardware and software. Why is it important? A lot of things are based on the internet. And, if the internet is not secured, your information is also not secured. And it doesn’t only matter for an individual, but for society, companies, governments and the entire world. In the world of finance, various kinds of automation and networking efforts have been made. However, due in part to inadequate information security technology, there have been huge losses in both internet banking and internet security. Furthermore, the development of quantum computers in recent years is accelerating further weakening information security. However, if perfect encryption, which has been developed in recent years by our company, is used, everything in finance will be safe. Remittances, payments and storage are no exception. How is the global scenario of information security? The powerful countries in this world actually determine the level of information security for ordinary people. They don’t want a higher level of security as it might turn into a security threat to them if terrorist groups start using higher information security. So, as of now, the scenario of this world is the same. All countries and people have almost the same level of information security. How is your company working to counter this situation? We want to break the syndicate and provide the topmost level of information security products to our clients. Many people and organizations have started inquiring about our products and I hope, sooner, we will be able to secure the internet and the information because globally, around USD 2 trillion is annually lost due to breaches of data. I have been inventing internet technologies since 2002. My inventions are ‘Prototype of encryption device’, ‘Encrypted communication remote I/O’, ‘Encrypted communication device (CP-S1)’, ‘Remote Monitoring System for Nagoya city’, and ‘4th generation PV (photovoltaics)’, among others. With all these experiences and experiments, I can guarantee that our company will provide the topmost information security. Can you please explain about your products? We have the ‘Cipher Security Information Security Diagnosis Business’ where we conduct an information security diagnosis for all businesses that handle confidential information, including financial institutions and auditing firms, and provide guidance and support for the implementation of countermeasures using the seven encryption-related products developed by our company. Our company is an IT support business, and we design and sell products as a subsidy application business. We also have the ‘Cipher Tunnel and Cipher Messenger Business’. Information exchange on the internet these days is extremely vulnerable in terms of information security, whether it is email, social networking services (SNS), or cloud storage, and is completely undisclosed to the business operators that provide these tools. This tool provides the ‘Cipher Tunnel’ software for confidential communication and remote authentication functions to all businesses that handle confidential information, such as finance and medical care, as software for users themselves to perform confidential communication and confidential messaging. Currently, we are working on the ‘Cipher Core Securities Platform’ where we are aiming to provide the software that issues and manages ‘digital securities’ with completely confidential storage, communication, and complete remote authentication functions. Real-time settlement of digital securities directly on the internet enables high-speed, high-turnover transactions and contributes to a high-density economy. How can Nepal benefit from information security? If your country has a secure internet, your national security will be in a better position. This will definitely help boost the investment environment in the country. And if your country uses our products, we will help develop your own application, product, technology and system. You can then sell those products to other countries, which will boost the national economy. Nepal will be a showcase for all the products with better internet infrastructures. It will also need a complete internet which should be strong enough and non-breakable. How will the internet connect the world as a global village? Since the opening of the internet for the private sector in the early 1990s, text, music, images and video have crossed all boundaries in an instant. The first stage of the internet has permeated every corner of the world as an ‘Information Service Platform’. Human activity is not limited to information exchange. Business transactions on the internet have also exploded and have fundamentally changed conventional business practices. When we will be more safe and secure to communicate and share our things, it will automatically help to form a global village with shared values.

Nepal reported 106 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 541 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 64 returned positive. Likewise, 947 people underwent antigen tests, of which 42 were tested positive. The Ministry said that no one died of the virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 74 infected people recovered from the disease. As of today, there are 435 active cases in the country.